How can chicago ban guns

Mayor Richard J. Daley was outspoken in his stand against gun rights activists, testifying before U. House subcommittees on gun violence in and creating a special court to process gun crimes. In response to rising gun violence by the end of the s, several Chicago aldermen began exploring the idea of a freeze on handgun registration. In the suburb of Morton Grove became the first municipality in the United States to ban the sale, transportation, and ownership of handguns. When a federal judge upheld the ban, the village attracted national attention.

The National Rifle Association began a campaign in many states to push for legislation that would preempt gun regulations by municipal governments.

The Illinois Legislature has a chance to save lives by reducing gun violence. But it must act quickly. The local firearms toll is staggering.

In Chicago alone, people were killed in , mostly by guns. More than 4, were shot. Just over this past holiday weekend, 30 were shot and six were killed. Gun violence also has increased in cities around the state. Legislation called the Block Illegal Ownership bill would plug legal loopholes through which guns flow to the criminals who turn streets into killing zones. It passed in the House in but stalled in the Senate as the Legislature took fewer votes during the pandemic.

The Senate, where the vote will be close, needs to pass the bill by Jan. If that happens, the state will lose its chance to act quickly to make it harder for dangerous people to get guns and harm others, including children, while giving law-abiding citizens access to guns. Among its measures, the BIO bill would require point-of-sale background checks for all gun sales, including by private sellers. It would require applicants for Firearm Owners Identification cards to submit fingerprints. Sanders should listen to U.

Robin Kelly , D-Ill. Kelly: Trump press secretary wrong about Chicago gun laws. With no gun stores in Chicago and no background check loopholes for private sales, one thing is clear. The guns being used to kill people on the streets aren't originating in Chicago. They're coming from someplace else. When politicians and others repeat that ridiculous statement about Chicago's gun laws, it shows how out of touch they are with the problems urban areas face when it comes to gun violence.

When it comes to gun laws, big cities are only as strong as the states that border them. And in Chicago's case, that's Indiana. Thanks to Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor, Indiana has some of the weakest gun laws in the nation. While Illinois has gone to great lengths to see that background checks are done for all gun purchases, Indiana has done the opposite.

To buy a weapon in Illinois, the owner must have a valid firearms owner's identification card, issued by the Illinois State Police. With no permit or license required to purchase a gun in Indiana, it is incredibly easy for a trafficker to drive across the state line, obtain a gun and use it to commit a homicide on the streets of Chicago. Those with felony convictions commonly use straw purchases, in which they enlist someone with a clean record to purchase multiple guns and bring them into the city.

Law enforcement officials say 60 percent of the guns confiscated on the streets of Chicago come from Indiana, Wisconsin and Mississippi. Last year, homicides dropped to As of Dec. Trump and his administration have wrongly made this assertion. Chicago passed a ban on handgun ownership in In , the ban was struck down by the U.

Supreme Court, and in , Illinois became the last state in the nation to approve concealed carry. Illinois is considered to have fairly tight gun laws.

The state requires gun owners to obtain licenses and face background checks. It also imposes waiting periods on purchases. But unlike New York and California, Illinois, among other things, does not ban assault weapons or large-capacity magazines and does not require a state license for firearms dealers or one to sell ammunition, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. This year, Gov.